Modern In the City Challenge Quilt

All during March I was frantically hand-quilting a twin size quilt that I can't show you yet, because it is associated with a book that is not yet published.  If you think frantically and hand-sewing are mutually exclusive, you are right.  Or at least they should be.  I forced them to go together and it was stressful.
Anyway, after I finished that beast of a project, I had about three days to meet a deadline for a challenge sponsored by my guild.  The theme was Modern in the City, which we were free to interpret any way we wanted.  The quilt had to be 36" on one side and 36" or less on the other.  Most excitingly, select quilts submitted for this challenge would be displayed at the International Quilt Festival in June!  All the quilts from our guild ended up being selected for the show.  So I'm going to have my first quilt hanging in a quilt show!  Very exciting.

I had a few ideas for this challenge, but went with the one that was simplest because I only had a couple of days to work on it.  I used this photo of my kids as inspiration.
Here is my artist's statement:
"One beautiful summer day in 2011, I was in Chicago with my family. We watched some friends play softball and then we walked to a restaurant for lunch. Somewhere in between, I don't know exactly where, we passed a colorful brick wall. I made my two boys pose for pictures in front of it. I loved the colors, individually and as a group, and I loved how randomly they seemed to be placed. I still have those pictures and I adore them. When I heard the theme, "Modern in the City," these colorful bricks immediately came to mind. They are emblematic of the fact that, for modern quilters, inspiration abounds in a city. There are patterns, shapes, and interesting lines at every turn. A day spent in the city with a keen eye and a camera could yield dozens of quilt ideas. I chose this brick wall as mine because the colors are bold and fun, and because it reminds me of such a happy day with my family.
For my quilting design, I chose a modern Chicago symbol, Cloud Gate sculpture, which is lovingly referred to as The Bean. I love the way the Bean draws people from all over the city and even the world. Its simple, smooth shape made for a pleasing concentric quilting design. I also like the way the curved lines contrast with the straight lines of the piecing."
Even though this little quilt was easy to whip up, I love how it turned out.  I think it's very striking.  I love the bean quilting!  Probably my favorite quilting I have done so far.  I hand-sewed a little skyline in the middle of the bean, too, which is a sweet little detail.  I can't wait to go to the International Quilt Festival with my guild friends and see our quilts displayed.

spring is here!

Another season means another mini quilt for my hallway.

After the winter we had in the midwest, every one was more than ready to see spring arrive.  Honestly, this spring has been a little lackluster, with it's cool temperatures and cloudy days (not to mention a little snow). But, hey, we've had a couple days where I felt the sun warm on my face.  I'll take it.
This mini was another improv creation.  I used a method detailed in this craftsy class taught by Jacquie Gehring.  She calls it slice and insert piecing.  I pieced strips of color into these six panels, three grey and three green in graduating tones.  I increased the number of inserts as the panels moved up; I wanted it to look like spring exploding up from the dark grey and gloom of winter.
My boys keep pointing out to me that it doesn't make sense to have the green at the top.  They think I was trying to make flowers or grass, I think.  In fact I was going for something a little more symbolic of spring, not quite a literal spring scene.  :)

Once the six panels were pieced and sewn together, I decided I wanted to applique more pops of color over the top.  I did this for two reasons.  First, I wanted to place some colored strips over the seams where the grey and green panels met.  I thought it would make the image more cohesive to have color bursting all over, not just confined to the six strips.  I hope that makes sense.  It's hard to articulate that idea!  Second, I just wanted MORE.  More color, more craziness, more exuberance, especially at the top of the piece.  I had pieced just about as much as I could piece without disastrous wonkiness happening.  At a certain point it was easier to add on top than to piece within an already heavily pieced panel.

Once again, I'm happy with this mini!  I think it screams SPRING even though it's not actual flowers or grass.  It's just color and life and spring all over.  It's like a confetti popper of spring, and I love it. 

Winter mini quilt

I'm working on a series of mini quilts, to hang in our entryway, that I will change with the seasons.  The first one I made was for Christmas.

In early January I made a mini quilt that represented Winter.

I was working, again, with Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II.  I settled on what she calls "the exquisite block".  Basically a square or rectangle base, with triangles pieced onto the diagonal points.  When the blocks are joined together, you end up with a series of little bowties or butterflies, or however you want to see it.

My goal for this piece was to portray the starkness of winter by using lots of white and pale, cool blues and greys.  I also wanted to express the warmth that we cling to during these long months, the warmth we find within ourselves, in the company of family and friends, or quite literally the warmth of our physical homes.  I added the golden yellow blocks and some yellow triangles emanating out from it to represent the warmth and light that keeps us hanging on until spring.

I quilted it with a series of zigzag lines, emanating out from the bottom right corner, to emphasize the placement of the yellow blocks.

 I think it all works.  I'm happy with it!  My only complaint is that it doesn't quite lay flat against the wall, no doubt because of some technical error on my part.  Oh well.

A couple of weeks ago I got to present this during Show and Tell at my guild meeting, and Gwen Marston was in attendance, as she presented a lecture and trunk show for us that day.  It was really an honor to show her my work, and I was able to chat with her after the meeting.  The afternoon as a whole was probably the greatest highlight of my quilting life so far.

it all started with a tiny wall hanging...

I've been feeling like our apartment entrance is a little bare.  I hang a wreath on the door that I change for each season (all my super cute wreaths come from this etsy shop), but that's it.  A little boring, especially when our neighbor across the hall always has a festive seasonal display of wreath, flowers above the door, and flowers on a pedestal!  I decided to make a mini quilt to hang on the wall by the door, and I plan to make one for each season, so I can change them along with the wreaths.

First up, Christmas.  I had just received my copy of Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.  I love this book.  I love Gwen Marston and everything about her aesthetic and philosophy.  This book has been so inspiring.  I decided to try my hand at her method for making wonky stars.

My first star and the book that inspired me so much.

I made a lot of stars.  I didn't have a pattern or plan or a certain number in mind, so I just kept making stars.  They were a lot of fun.  Because I was making a Christmas wall hanging, I used a variety of greens and reds for my stars, with various grey fabrics as background.

Once I was done making stars, I started making log cabin blocks in low volume fabrics.  I put together a composition that I liked and pieced together my little wall hanging.  I quilted it in straight(ish) lines.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Christmas wall hanging, before it was quilted.

here is the wall hanging that started it all, hanging in its place of honor in the hallway.

When it was done, I had a lot of stars left over.  Those stars turned into a small quilt for my mom, and a large quilt that our family is keeping.  I didn't have a particular size in mind for these.  I just kept adding until I felt the compositions were complete.  The quilt for my mom ended up at 84x66.  I would call it a nap size.  The quilt for us is 93x97.  It fits nicely on our queen size bed.

My design strategy for the bigger quilts was basically the same as for the mini quilt.  Festive red and green stars interspersed with low-volume log-cabin squares, plus a few big swatches of solids or prints.  I added random strips here and there to fill in spaces.  It was a very unplanned and organic process.  I hung a piece of batting as a temporary design wall so that I could step back and look at how things were coming together.

laying out the design for my mom's quilt, step one.

adding more stars and solids, step two of layout.

another progress shot... more spaces filled, more seams joined.

I sent the two larger pieces to my trusty long-arm quilter, Sarah Russett in New York state.  She did a fabulous job as usual.  I got them back from her just in time to bind them and wrap my mom's up for Christmas!

christmas stars quilt for my mom

back of mom's quilt

giant christmas stars quilt for us to keep!

back of our quilt.

These projects were my first attempts at improvisation.  For my first time not using a pattern, I was really pleased with and proud of how they turned out.  I think I could have done a better job of choosing fabric for some of the stars.  The values were too close on some, and the stars didn't pop out like they should have.  Aside from that, I really love all these quilts, from the mini to the queen size.  They are festive, funky, fun, and fabulous.  I really love improvising.  I may never use another pattern again. 

story quilts for Christmas

This year I gave story quilts to my nieces and nephews for Christmas.  I gifted one per family, not one for each individual child (I currently have 8 nieces and nephews, and one on the way!).  I love giving these story quilts as gifts for kids, because of the way they can engage a child's imagination.  But I have to say I have made so many of these in the past few years, that I don't want to make another for a very long time!  I saved enough of the fussy-cut novelty print squares that I can make a few more down the road, perhaps for grandchildren.

The pattern for this quilt is found in Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  It's called Once Upon a Time. 

Nate helped me take these pictures in the park on a beautiful snowy day.  It was fun.  :)

I tried to think of each family's home and style when I was choosing background fabrics.  The solids I used on the front are all shot cottons which were gorgeous and soft to work with.

It was fun to watch them get unwrapped at Christmas.  I'm happy to have these done and to be moving on to other projects.

This gold and purple version was for my sister's family.

 And here is the back. 

Grey and lime green for my sister and brother in law.

Here is their back.

Blue and cream for my brother's family.

And the back.

organizing my days, and a mini quilt

So this year (school year, as any mother of school-age kids measures her years), I have a lot I want to get done.  I want to wrap up the onesie business completely, and I still have a couple of hundred onesies to print and list in my shop.  It's a big job, and I've been chipping away at it.  But I also have other things I want to do and need to do.  Quilting projects, seasonal projects, etc.  I first thought I would alternate days, onesies then other things.  But I've decided it makes more sense to alternate each week. It cuts down on time I have to spend cleaning up and switching between each type of work.

Last week I worked diligently on finishing a mini quilt, putting together a napping size quilt and back, and making my halloween costume.  It was a lot.  I worked hard all week.

This week I need to get back to the business of onesies.  It's also Halloween so I will be at the boys' school helping with festivities.  This school year is going so dang fast, I can't believe it.

I had 3 quilts that I wanted to finish before Christmas, which was a huge goal, and I'm nearly done.  The tops and backs are all done.  I will send them to Sarah Russett, my long-arm quilter, and when she is done doing her excellent work, I will add the bindings and be done.  Yay.  Christmas gifts I'm excited to give, and a giant item checked off my to-do list.  I'll post pictures of them after they have been given away.

The mini quilt I finished this week is a project inspired by this print by Hannes Beers.  Last year the librarian at the boys' school mentioned that she was looking for things to hang on the library walls.  I immediately remembered that print and thought it would be perfect for the library.  I added to it a bit, and changed some elements.  I made a stencil on my Silhouette and then painted it on white fabric.  I did the quilting by hand.  It was my first foray into hand quilting, and while I have no idea whether I did it "right," I enjoyed the process and I like the final look of the piece.  I want to block it so it's a little more square, then add the hanging sleeve and it will be ready to give away.  It was super satisfying to do a small quilt project intended to hang on the wall.  I definitely will be doing more mini quilts in the future.

Sylvia's Quilt

I finished another baby quilt.  This one went to our new niece Sylvia.  I used the fat quarter pattern from Two Little Banshees again.  It is such a quick and easy pattern, and it's nice to be able to shop for fabric in bundles instead of individually (especially since I don't have a car at my disposal to go fabric-store hopping these days).  Plus I like that Sylvia's quilt used the same pattern as her brother Owen's.  So they have a little set of matching quilts, albeit with very different fabrics.

I bought the fat quarter bundle from Hawthorne Threads.  They have a lot of really pretty bundles to choose from.  I loved picking such a girly bunch of fabrics for this little lady.  My sister in law Jessica does not shy away from the girly colors.  She loves pink and Sylvia has a gorgeous pink nursery.  I think these bright feminine prints will fit in nicely.

I was frustrated yet again when it came to the quilting of this quilt.  I was pleased with the top (for which I used the pattern), and I was pleased with the back (which I pieced together randomly from scraps),  and I felt like I ruined them once began quilting.  I had a lot of puckers again.  I think it might have been due to my deficient basting process.  Or the fact that I took off my walking foot and used the regular foot to do my quilting.  Whatever the cause, it didn't work out well, and my quilting was less than stellar.  Again.  I'll keep trying, though.  The good thing was that after I washed and dried it, the puckers and mistakes were much less evident.

I added a few hand-stitched details on this quilt, which I like to do when I have time.  I hope Miss Sylvia will get some good snuggles and naps out of this quilt!  I enjoyed making it for her and holding her for a few hours when I met her last weekend.  Not many things in this world sweeter than a brand new baby.

a finished quilt, plus M O V I N G

I finished the first story quilt a few weeks ago.  I quilted it with straight lines at random intervals.  They actually weren't all that straight, and some of them even cross over each other, but I kind of like their imperfect look.

On the back I used this awesome chevron print I found on etsy.  I get most of my fabric on etsy, actually.  I wanted to include an explanation of how to use the quilt on the back... I made a stencil on my Cameo Silhouette, painted it onto some fabric, and then incorporated that block into the back of the quilt.  This was a pretty time consuming process, but I am happy with how it turned out.  For all subsequent story quilts I make, though, I have a more efficient solution.  I had some fabric printed by Spoonflower that says the same thing.  I love how it looks and can't wait to show you on the next quilt!  I added some colorful binding and called it done!  Love it.  Can't wait to send it to its new home.

It's hard to imagine when I might have time to make another quilt.  Life is going to be dominated by one giant project for the foreseeable future, because.....  we are moving!  Nate took a new job in the suburbs of Chicago.  We have wanted to move back to Chicago since the day we left, almost 6 years ago.  So we are excited.  But also sad to leave family and good friends here.  And also overwhelmed by the gigantic task of selling a house and moving.  It's going to be a lot of work.  It already has been a ton of work to get the house ready for showings.  We have had loads of help from family already, and I'm sure we'll need more help before this process is over.  A challenging time ahead of us... lots of work to accomplish, many emotions to sift through, and a new life to create once we reach the other side.  It's really happening!

wonderful quilty distraction

I've been working on some quilts lately.  A couple weeks ago I was working obsessively on them, at the expense of every other area of my life.  Then I reached a point where I could no longer ignore the house, the laundry, or the mounting onesie orders.  So the quilts went on a short break.  But now I'm caught up on onesies, and the house isn't a super disaster right now, just a regular disaster, so the quilts are coming back out.  I consciously made this decision because I need a distraction for the next couple of days.  See, Nate has an interview tomorrow.  For a job near Chicago.  So at this point there is a slight chance that we could be moving back. We've been down this road before and been disappointed by the outcome, so I'm trying hard not to get worked up.  I'm trying not to even think about it at all because 1. so much excitement I can hardly keep from jumping up and down and squealing and 2. tons of anxiety about the logistics of moving, especially packing up this huge house and moving to a much smaller one.  Also 3. no point in feeling excited or nervous until the thing actually happens.  Which is hasn't yet.  So.  That is my life at the moment.  Trying not to think about the thing I've been hoping for/dreaming of for six years now.  Quilts to the rescue!

I have had plans to make these story quilts for several years now.  I've been slowly collecting and cutting novelty fabrics into squares.  Six months ago I bought enough backing fabric to construct three of these bad boys, two for friends and one for us.  And I finally cut into that fabric a couple weeks ago.  One thing I will say for myself is that even if it takes a super long time, I do usually follow through on a plan.  What does your workspace look like when you quilt and also sell onesies?  Something like this.  A big fat mess.

The pattern is from this book.  The idea is to use the paths (the straight lines) to move to the pictures (cut from all the novelty prints) and tell a story as you go.  You can tell a new story every time, because you take a different path or interpret a picture in a new way.  I fell in love with this idea.  It's right in my wheelhouse as far as believing that childhood is a time for simple pleasures and creative play.  It's entirely possible that nobody will use these quilts as intended.  My own boys might only use theirs as a way to keep warm while playing video games (cringe).  But I like that these quilts could possibly spark a child's imagination, and I'm going to cling to that even if it is a delusion.

So I have one completely pieced (the top is all sewn together), and the other is nearly pieced.  Then I just have to make the quilt sandwiches (easier said than done, as I'll have to actually sweep and mop the floor so I have a clean place to lay them out), and start quilting!  I bought myself a walking foot to make the quilting easier.  I'm going with simple straight line quilting, no free motion experimentation this time around.

I had tons of fun shopping for the fabric for these quilts.  The background fabrics were fun to pick out but the novelty prints were ridiculously fun.  Too fun.  Do you guys know how many adorable novelty prints are out there?  A LOT.  Fabrics that I would probably never be drawn to for another project were perfectly suited to these story quilts.  I had a hard time stopping.  In fact I still haven't stopped, even though I have more than enough for these three quilts, and many more after that.  I'm hoping to make one for my nieces and nephews (one per family), and probably some other friends too.  Hopefully I'll be showing you a finished project pretty soon.  In the meantime, here are some of my favorite story squares.  They are so cute.  I mean, a raccoon building a brick wall.  COME ON.